


Useful

by Mireille



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-05-10
Updated: 2003-05-10
Packaged: 2018-08-15 21:18:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8073037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mireille/pseuds/Mireille
Summary: If a thing isn't beautiful, Lucius has always known, it must be useful, or it isn't worth keeping.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Please keep in mind that this was written before OOTP was published, so it does not necessarily match up with later canon. I did change a detail or two (Narcissa's maiden name, for example) from the originally-posted version to fit canon, but it's still definitely not compliant with the last three books.

If a thing isn't beautiful, Lucius has always known, it must be useful, or it isn't worth keeping.

He steals flowers from the school greenhouses for Narcissa Black because she's beautiful and so are they; he'll bring his grandmother's engagement ring back from the Christmas holidays because Narcissa, as a pureblood Slytherin girl of impeccable breeding, the correct political views, and considerable wealth, is also useful to the Malfoy heir. 

Severus Snape is not, by any stretch of the imagination, beautiful, but as one of the best students in their year--the best student their Potions teacher has seen in her entire career, or so she says--he may very well be useful to Lucius, so Lucius has kept him around since their first year. Offered him friendship--perhaps not a very warm friendship, but Lucius has been brought up to regard human relationships as a form of currency--and the status that came with being good enough for Lucius Malfoy to deign to notice your existence. 

Their fifth year, Lucius began to understand just how useful Severus could be. Over the summer, his father had talked to him several times about what was waiting for him when he left school, and Lucius realized that the more people who were loyal to him--to _him,_ not to his name, not to his money--the better off he'd be. And if those people were brilliant in their own right, then he'd be able to exploit their talents for his own purposes. 

Severus is not only brilliant, but extraordinarily practical, and that's even more useful to Lucius; it means there won't be so many tiresome scruples to deal with later on. 

And then, one night, he saw Severus watching him from behind his Transfiguration textbook, and Lucius smiled to himself; there might be ways to bind Severus to him more even more securely. Once he began to pay attention, he saw that Severus spent quite a bit of time watching him, in fact; not in their classes, where he generally concentrated on their work, but at meals, and in the common room, and in their dorm. 

So, because Severus was useful, one night just after Christmas of that year, Lucius waited until their roommates were asleep, and climbed into the bed next to his own. 

And he's been doing that for the past two years. It isn't a love affair, and Lucius is certain they both know that; but it's what Severus wants from him. It isn't what Lucius wants, particularly--it doesn't bother him, but he doesn't particularly desire the other boy. But it gives Lucius what he wants from Severus, and that's enough. 

Not beautiful, but useful. 

Tonight, he fell asleep before he thought to go back to his own bed, and he wakes with the feeling that someone's watching him. Still feigning sleep, he just barely opens his eyes--just enough to see the speculative way that Severus is studying his features.

Lucius recognizes the cold appraisal in that look, and finds himself hoping that Severus merely thinks him beautiful.


End file.
